The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-03-03
BYRON AND BuLweR.
Their Domestic Difficulties, and At
temps ut Arbitration.

Their Domestic Difficulties and At.
temps 1T Arbitration.
In bis "Reminiscences just published
S:r Francis Doyle says that on two &C.
casions his father ''had to take upon
himself the difficult and disagreeable
task of arbitrating between a husband
and wife, and that after a reconciliation
had become impossible. The husbands
in both cases were eminent men, though
not quite of equal eminence. Lady BY.
ron, an old family friend of ours, when
driven to desperation. applied to my
father to act on her behalf"
''Ih;s he did. But as he felt boun6
in honor to disclose nothing, the greedy
curiosity of the public must not expect
any food from me, who know no more
than they do. l can only tell them that
my father never repented of what he
had done. The one point can speak
of which appears to me worth noting is
this: Here were three men-my father.
DR.. Lushington, and Sir Robert Wilmot
Horton. q cousin and early friend Of
Lord Byron's. They were all three men
of great ability. they we're all three
thorough men of the world, they were
all three men who had worked out theiI
lives on perfectly different lines. Ny
father had been tossed about the world
from the time that he found himself
captain in the army at IL; DR.. Lushing.
ton was a distinguished Oxford man
and fellow of college, who became a
highly-successful advocate; Sir Robert
fhn fRx-c nf
good position, aftcrward an able civil
servant and professional politician.
And yet these three men. so different
in their antccedents and characters,
were completely in unison, and held that
Lady Byron had no choice except to sep
arate herself from her husband! They
were. said, all men of the world. In
other words, if Lady Byron's anger
had been reused on discovering that
Lord Byron was not an irreproachable
husband, they would, / am sure, have
told her in very plain language: LAS
you chose with your eyes open to mar
ry man of wayward genius, who is at
the same time the spoilt child of socie-
ty, you can not expect him to behave
exactly like model arcldeacon; YOU
must accept the consequences of your
own rashness, and try to touch the
higher and better parts of his nature by
gentlcss and preserving affection AS
they did not take this course, I must
leave to Lord Byron's partisans to set
tic for themselves how it came 10 pas,
that since these three gentlemen, be.
ing the men they were, if Lord Byron's
conduct were pardonable at all. never
suggested to his wife that she should
pardon him."
Again, many years afterward, he at
tenn pied to mediate between Lord and
Lady Lytton (she was cousin of ours),
but in vain.
''Her temper was in such state of
inflammation that she would listen to
no moderate counsels, and my father
had 10 sit still under her furious in
vcctives VIII lst dying of heart disease.
l have always thou ht that by her I'M
placable egotism she shortened his life
Long after his death put my resent
ment on one side and tired to help her.
but she soon became intractable. Lord
Lytton, who always behaved with per-
feet courtesy, both to my father and
myself, offered to increase her allow
ance on certain conditions. thought
them reasonable enough; but the very
mention of the word conditions
drove her wild with rage. and a storm
of abuse fell on my devoted head. Our
intercourse ended with letter address,
ed to me with a hostile direction. The
inside of the letter matched the out
side, and never saw or communicated
with her again.